Smithsonian Must Exhibit Ingenuity in the Face of Overlapping Gifts

By ELAINE SCIOLINO

Published: August 6, 2001

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5—
The Smithsonian Institution has discovered that it is indeed possible to have an embarrassment of riches.

The institution's National Museum of American History has accepted two gifts for permanent exhibitions that cover much of the same ground and would together take up about 10 percent of the museum's exhibition space. The gifts come from two of the museum's largest donors, so museum officials are now in the unusual position of trying to determine how to honor both contracts.

Earlier this year the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation pledged $38 million for what was widely characterized as a hall of fame of achievers. Ms. Reynolds's contract with the Smithsonian says the money will finance ''an interactive exhibition that tells the life stories of eminent Americans, describes their personal characteristics that contributed to their achievements and highlights those achievements.''

But the museum and its advisory board realized only belatedly that the project overlapped with one that was financed last year with part of an $80 million gift from Kenneth E. Behring, a California real estate developer. His was the largest single gift in the Smithsonian's history and followed a gift of $20 million he made in 1997.

About $20 million of Mr. Behring's $80 million is to pay, his contract with the Smithsonian says, for a ''thematic hall'' that will focus on ''American legends and legacies'' and be ''a tribute to deceased individuals who made great contributions to our country and who truly epitomize the 'American spirit.' ''

Under the terms of that contract the museum must allot 18,000 to 20,000 square feet to this exhibition. The contract with Ms. Reynolds says that her exhibition will encompass 10,000 square feet and include a related awards program.

Copies of the contracts, which have not been made public, were made available by Smithsonian officials who do not want the projects to proceed.

Ivan Selin, the chairman of the museum, said the museum did not realize the potential conflict between the two exhibitions until it was too late. ''The museum didn't accept the Reynolds gift knowing that we had a conflict with the Behring gift,'' he said. ''Only as we looked into it did it become clear that there was overlap and that the potential for duplication and confusion was high. We don't know how this is going to work out right now.''

The negotiations with Ms. Reynolds, particularly in the early stages, were largely carried out by Lawrence M. Small, the Smithsonian's secretary, and Sheila Burke, an under secretary, with little input from the museum staff and its board, Mr. Selin said. A result, he added, was ''a lack of mutual understanding of what the Reynolds project would be before the Smithsonian agreed to the gift.''

''It isn't fatal,'' he continued, ''but it has left open questions that might have been answered before the contract was signed.''

Museum officials acknowledge the risk of duplication. ''We have to think this through to make sure the halls are complementary and that there not be repetition,'' Spencer R. Crew, the museum's director, said in a telephone interview. ''We need to sit down and talk about that now.''

Mr. Selin, a businessman and former under secretary of state for management and former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said that his advisory board was prepared to monitor both projects closely. ''If it seems to be turning out to be quite difficult to make these exhibitions complementary, we will become much more involved,'' he said.

Asked whether it was possible to fuse or link the exhibitions, Mr. Selin said, ''That's one of the many alternatives that the museum is giving consideration to.''

But museum officials said linkage was no longer an option. ''It wouldn't be a Behring-Reynolds exhibition hall,'' said Martha Morris, the museum's deputy director. Each contract explicitly names each exhibition's hall after the donor or donor designee, subject to approval by the museum's board of regents.

Each of the Smithsonian's 16 museums has its own advisory board, but the boards vary in their level of involvement and oversight. The Smithsonian's board of regents, led by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, serves as the institution's governing body. Because the regents meet only three times a year, they do not study many issues in detail.

Mr. Crew said the museum considered consolidating the exhibitions several months ago, with Mr. Behring's focusing on dead Americans and Ms. Reynolds's focusing on living ones. But as Ms. Reynolds's project became more historical in nature, he added, ''our thinking began to change.'' Ms. Reynolds declined a request for an interview. Sheila Tate, the spokeswoman for her foundation, said, ''Mrs. Reynolds believes the exhibitions are complementary, and it is the museum's business to mesh the concepts.''

Mr. Behring was traveling and unavailable for comment. His son, David, a member of the museum's board, did not return phone calls. Both Mr. Crew and Ms. Morris said they had not begun substantive discussions with Mr. Behring on how to define his exhibition, although such work had begun on Ms. Reynolds's project. Asked what might be proposed to Mr. Behring, Mr. Crew said: ''There is nowhere in the museum where the breadth of American history is laid out. We could still highlight American achievers but do it in a timeline.''